Stanley Clarke

"Stanley’s main electric basses are his Alembic signature 4-strings."

This article lists the equipment Stanley Clarke used for recording ’Up’. The list includes this item, Stanley used it on “Last Train to Sanity”.

This picture shows Stanley holding a Gibson G3 bass

Featured in this TalkBass.com forum post.

I have an Alembic Series I that I bought from Stanley Clarke.

Kind of a cool story behind it, too.

Sometime in 1991 or '92 I was driving past the Fox Theatre in Detroit and heard on the radio that tickets for a Stanley Clarke / George Duke concert were going to go on sale at 10 am. It was about 9:45, so I parked and got in line. Got 2nd row seats.

My date (who has since become my wife) and I were in our 2nd row seats and the 1st row was empty. Stanley stood on the seats right in front of us and totally went off on a solo. I noticed then that the bass he was playing was different than the Small Body Series I bass he usually played.

Fast forward to May of 2000. Stanley's divorce was being finalized, so he was selling off all his gear. I wound up buying the bass he played that night!

Here it is........

1375.

1378.

Stanley holding the bass for a promo shot

1996.

Peace,

James

The photos reveal a serial number of 874431.

This article lists the equipment Stanley Clarke used for recording ’Up’. The list includes this item.

"Stanley’s amplification and electronics endorsements include: QSR RMX 2450 Power Amp, Alembic, SWR amps and speaker cabinets, including the SWR Spellbinder Blue Bass Amp, John East ACG circuit, and EBS bass equipment."

"Stanley's usual live signal path is split between bridge and neck pickups. From there signals go into a power supply/preamps (one per pickup), to a Mackie 1202 mixer then into two QSR RMX 2450 power amps, which drive two SWR Goliath III 4x10 cabinets (from the bridge-pickup signal) and two SWR Big Ben 1X18 subwoofer cabinets(the neck-pickup signal)."

"Stanley's usual live signal path is split between bridge and neck pickups. From there signals go into a power supply/preamps (one per pickup), to a Mackie 1202 mixer then into two QSR RMX 2450 power amps, which drive two SWR Goliath III 4x10 cabinets (from the bridge-pickup signal) and two SWR Big Ben 1X18 subwoofer cabinets(the neck-pickup signal)."

"He plugs his upright into an SWR Super Redhead combo amp."

In this Premier Guitar Rig Rundown at (2:54), Stanley Clarke's bass tech explains they are using Ampeg SVT-2 Pro heads in their live setup. Clarke's tech calls it a "warm tube preamp. [Clarke] uses this with his acoustic bass," he said.

In this Premier Guitar interview at (2:54), Stanley Clarke's bass tech shows off the Ampeg SVT 4 pro.

"He usually uses a Fender Twin guitar amp, for a bit of grit and crunch; this is driven by the bridge-pickup preamp."

"His effects are a Lexicon MPX 550 digital reverb and EBS BassIQ analog envelope filter, which are looped into the bridge-pickup preamp and an EBS OctaBass looped into the neck-pickup preamp."

At (5:26) in this Premier Guitar Rig Rundown, Stanley Clarke says, "Every bass play should have one of these." He also says it works with acoustic guitars as well.

At (6:12) in this Premier Guitar Rig Rundown, Stanley Clarke talks about the EBS Dynaverb, which he uses on his acoustic bass. It "sounds very good," Clarke said. "Real simple and sounds really good."

According to Stanley Clarke at (6:22) in this Premier Guitar Rig Rundown, the Return to Forever bassist uses the TC Electronic G System. "It's very sophisticated," Clarke said. "It does a lot of things - loops, you create your own effects, it's very clean sounding, it's great."

At (6:50) in this Premier Guitar Rig Rundown, Stanley Clarke calls the MXR Bass Octave Deluxe a "clean" sounding octave pedal. "I actually prefer the EBS one," Clarke said.

"My favorite octave divider is definitely the EBS pedal," Stanley Clarke said of the EBS Bass IQ at (6:50) in this Premier Guitar Rig Rundown.

The T-Rex Engineering FuelTank Power Supply can be seen on Stanley Clarke's pedalboard at (6:25) in this Premier Guitar Rig Rundown.

“My primary use of it is as a tonal control. It does looks like a wah pedal, though. I felt that a foot on a pedal would be an easier way to select frequencies than with the hand. You can use it without any hesitation in play. It works!”

“The advantage of the Alembic bass is that it has multiple tones/frequencies built in. For those guitars that don’t have that advantage, the Wah Pedal is an even greater asset. Players can pull tones from the pedal that are not built into the guitar.”

This article lists the equipment Stanley Clarke used for recording ’Up’. The list includes this item.

Stanley's usual live signal path is split between bridge and neck pickups. From there signals go into a power supply/preamps (one per pickup), to a Mackie 1202 mixer then into two QSR RMX 2450 power amps, which drive two SWR Goliath III 4x10 cabinets (from the bridge-pickup signal) and two SWR Big Ben 1X18 subwoofer cabinets(the neck-pickup signal).

"Well, the other thing I use is the Lexicon PCM 70 reverb. I like Lexicon because it's a darker sounding reverb. I mean it has a sound, it seems to have a warm sound. I like a warm sound on the bass anyway, especially as far as effects are concerned. The Alembic bass is such a hi-fi sounding bass. It's very pumped up, very high. It's just a very powerful sound, you know, a lot of spikes, peaks on the bass. It's just the way they did the electronics. So coupling that with the nice soft sort of warm reverb really has a nice effect."

"When I'm film composing I usually have an Amek 40 channel board, a lot of old outboard gear, LA2A's, some George Massenburg EQ's, a lot of dbx stuff, noise gates."

"When I'm film composing I usually have an Amek 40 channel board, a lot of old outboard gear, LA2A's, some George Massenburg EQ's, a lot of dbx stuff, noise gates."

"Stanley's usual live signal path is split between bridge and neck pickups. From there signals go into a power supply/preamps (one per pickup), to a Mackie 1202 mixer then into two QSR RMX 2450 power amps, which drive two SWR Goliath III 4x10 cabinets (from the bridge-pickup signal) and two SWR Big Ben 1X18 subwoofer cabinets(the neck-pickup signal)."

In this Premier Guitar Rig Rundown at (2:22), Stanley Clarke uses Ampeg PN115HLF speaker cabinets for his low end.